What is a Technical Certificate?

  We spend a lot of time talking about college in high school. This term usually connotes continued education at a university or perhaps a community college. Here, we probably envision students working toward a bachelor's or associate's degree. However, I explain to the students I counsel that if they hear me use the word “college”, I might be referring to any continued education beyond high school, for simplicity’s sake. I do this, really, because I don’t want to exclude a student’s pursuit of a technical certificate which can be a very lucrative endeavor, so let’s discuss exactly what that is.

A technical certificate is not a traditional college degree. It likely doesn’t require that students take general education courses in classes that won’t directly relate to their program of study. Students in these types of programs often are not earning traditional credits either. Sure, they may need to take specific classes that meet at certain times like a traditional student but the takeaway from those is more geared towards experience, clock hours, or seat time than it is college credits.

This concept is really at the heart of what a technical certificate is. Instead of accumulating credits that build towards a degree or diploma, these students are cutting to the chase, so to speak. They are working towards gaining the know-how and experience that will lead them to being fully prepared for work in a given industry.

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to what this means though. The “certificate” a student walks away with can be very different from one program to another and from one institution to another. Students in one place might be studying to take a written exam that certifies them at a state level to work in a particular field. Some students might end up needing to perform in front of some sort of review board that deems them qualified for a particular career. Other students will be seeking certification in a very specific area of study like an individual computer programming language. Or, some students will leave their program with something from their institution that implies that they completed a comprehensive program lasting a minimum time frame where they learned the ins and outs of a certain career field or industry.

Whatever the case, these programs are usually a lot shorter and often cheaper than traditional college (though traditional college financial aid should be available). Technical certificate programs usually provide training in areas where there is a high demand for workers, so program completers usually have little problem finding work. With that demand, comes competitive pay and these people can make a very comfortable life for themselves. They might not always have the same opportunities to improve their earnings and advance over the course of their lifetimes as traditional college graduates (though they might), but the format of traditional college just isn’t for everyone and technical certificates can be a great alternative.